Disable merging of slabs with similar size

An XCCDF Rule

Description

The kernel may merge similar slabs together to reduce overhead and increase cache hotness of objects. Disabling merging of slabs keeps the slabs separate and reduces the risk of kernel heap overflows overwriting objects in merged caches. To disable merging of slabs in the Kernel add the argument slab_nomerge=yes to the default GRUB 2 command line for the Linux operating system. Configure the default Grub2 kernel command line to contain slab_nomerge=yes as follows:

# grub2-editenv - set "$(grub2-editenv - list | grep kernelopts) slab_nomerge=yes"

warning alert: Performance Warning

Disabling merge of slabs will slightly increase kernel memory utilization.

Rationale

Disabling the merge of slabs of similar sizes prevents the kernel from merging a seemingly useless but vulnerable slab with a useful and valuable slab. This increase the risk that a heap overflow could overwrite objects from merged caches, with unmerged caches the heap overflow would only affect the objects in the same cache. Overall, this reduces the kernel attack surface area by isolating slabs from each other.

ID: xccdf_org.ssgproject.content_rule_grub2_slab_nomerge_argument
Severity: Medium
References: BP28(R8)
Updated: about 1 year ago

[customizations.kernel]
append = "slab_nomerge=yes"

- name: Gather the package facts
  package_facts:
    manager: auto
  tags:
  - grub2_slab_nomerge_argument
  - low_disruption  - medium_complexity
  - medium_severity
  - reboot_required
  - restrict_strategy

- name: Check slab_nomerge argument exists
  command: grep '^\s*GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX=.*slab_nomerge=' /etc/default/grub
  failed_when: false
  register: argcheck
  when:
  - '"grub2" in ansible_facts.packages'
  - ansible_virtualization_type not in ["docker", "lxc", "openvz", "podman", "container"]
  tags:
  - grub2_slab_nomerge_argument
  - low_disruption
  - medium_complexity
  - medium_severity
  - reboot_required
  - restrict_strategy

- name: Check slab_nomerge argument exists
  command: grep '^\s*GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX=' /etc/default/grub
  failed_when: false
  register: linecheck
  when:
  - '"grub2" in ansible_facts.packages'
  - ansible_virtualization_type not in ["docker", "lxc", "openvz", "podman", "container"]
  tags:
  - grub2_slab_nomerge_argument
  - low_disruption
  - medium_complexity
  - medium_severity
  - reboot_required
  - restrict_strategy

- name: Add slab_nomerge argument
  ansible.builtin.lineinfile:
    line: GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX="slab_nomerge=yes "
    state: present
    dest: /etc/default/grub
    create: true
    mode: '0644'
  when:
  - '"grub2" in ansible_facts.packages'
  - ansible_virtualization_type not in ["docker", "lxc", "openvz", "podman", "container"]
  - argcheck is not skipped and linecheck is not skipped and argcheck.rc != 0 and
    linecheck.rc != 0
  tags:
  - grub2_slab_nomerge_argument
  - low_disruption
  - medium_complexity
  - medium_severity
  - reboot_required
  - restrict_strategy

- name: Replace existing slab_nomerge argument
  replace:
    path: /etc/default/grub
    regexp: slab_nomerge=[a-zA-Z0-9,]+
    replace: slab_nomerge=yes
  when:
  - '"grub2" in ansible_facts.packages'
  - ansible_virtualization_type not in ["docker", "lxc", "openvz", "podman", "container"]
  - argcheck is not skipped and linecheck is not skipped and argcheck.rc == 0 and
    linecheck.rc == 0
  tags:
  - grub2_slab_nomerge_argument
  - low_disruption
  - medium_complexity
  - medium_severity
  - reboot_required
  - restrict_strategy

- name: Add slab_nomerge argument
  replace:
    path: /etc/default/grub
    regexp: (^\s*GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX=.*)"
    replace: \1 slab_nomerge=yes"
  when:
  - '"grub2" in ansible_facts.packages'
  - ansible_virtualization_type not in ["docker", "lxc", "openvz", "podman", "container"]
  - argcheck is not skipped and linecheck is not skipped and argcheck.rc != 0 and
    linecheck.rc == 0
  tags:
  - grub2_slab_nomerge_argument
  - low_disruption
  - medium_complexity
  - medium_severity
  - reboot_required
  - restrict_strategy

- name: Update grub defaults and the bootloader menu
  command: /usr/sbin/grub2-mkconfig -o /boot/grub2/grub.cfg
  when:
  - '"grub2" in ansible_facts.packages'
  - ansible_virtualization_type not in ["docker", "lxc", "openvz", "podman", "container"]
  tags:
  - grub2_slab_nomerge_argument
  - low_disruption
  - medium_complexity
  - medium_severity
  - reboot_required
  - restrict_strategy

# Remediation is applicable only in certain platforms
if rpm --quiet -q grub2 && { [ ! -f /.dockerenv ] && [ ! -f /run/.containerenv ]; }; then

# Correct the form of default kernel command line in GRUB
if grep -q '^\s*GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX=.*slab_nomerge=.*"'  '/etc/default/grub' ; then
       # modify the GRUB command-line if an slab_nomerge= arg already exists       sed -i "s/\(^\s*GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX=\".*\)slab_nomerge=[^[:space:]]\+\(.*\"\)/\1slab_nomerge=yes\2/"  '/etc/default/grub'
# Add to already existing GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX parameters
elif grep -q '^\s*GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX='  '/etc/default/grub' ; then
       # no slab_nomerge=arg is present, append it
       sed -i "s/\(^\s*GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX=\".*\)\"/\1 slab_nomerge=yes\"/"  '/etc/default/grub'
# Add GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX parameters line
else
       echo "GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX=\"slab_nomerge=yes\"" >> '/etc/default/grub'
fi
grub2-mkconfig -o /boot/grub2/grub2.cfg

else
    >&2 echo 'Remediation is not applicable, nothing was done'
fi

Disable merging of slabs with similar size

Description

Rationale

Remediation - OS Build Blueprint

Remediation - Ansible

Remediation - Shell Script